Selling art can be difficult when you are just starting out, and that applies to both selling art online, and selling art offline. There are many theories, methods and processes that can help you to sell your artwork, and each will work differently depending on how you work, which areas you are comfortable working in, and how determined you are to make sales.
Building an Audience
This is a factor that is often overlooked, or considered to be obvious or common knowledge, when considering how to sell artwork. Without an audience for your art, there is little chance that you will make any sales. Without a good, strong audience, both online and offline, there are few opportunities for people to view your artwork, speak to you about it or perhaps even purchase it.
If building an audience is integral to being able to sell your artwork, then how do you begin that process and build an audience for your artwork?
Art Fairs
Art fairs might seem daunting, but local art fairs and affordable art fairs are increasingly becoming democratic platforms for artists to get involved and show their artwork to a wide audience of art lovers. Either as an individual, or perhaps as an artist collective, you can apply for a stand where you can display your work for the length of the fair. With a well prepared application, there is a good chance that you can be accepted to the right kinds of art fair.
While art fairs are great for exposing your work to new people and for starting to familiarise an art hungry audience with your artwork, there is a downside in terms of costs. Based on the size of the stand that you would like to have, and the exposure that you would like to gain in things like the fair catalogue, there is normally a cost associated with acceptance to an art fair. You then also have the challenge of making your work stand out from the crowd at the fair.
However, don't be deterred. The benefits of showing your work at an art fair can far outweigh the initial costs. Just make sure that you plan your mini-exhibition there and that you go prepared with marketing materials like business cards, flyers and maybe even brochures of your work that people can take away.
Exhibition Opportunities
Aside from art fairs, there may be other exhibition opportunities that you can take advantage of at local galleries in your area, or you can seek to host your own exhibitions.
If you have the space, or the means to rent a commercial space for a short length of time, then hosting your own exhibition, or an exhibition with other local artists can be fun and extremely beneficial. The opportunity to show your work to the local community can be a great chance for exposure, and by hosting your own exhibition you retain a lot of control over how your work is displayed and priced, and of course you retain 100 percent of the profits from any sales.
If you aren't comfortable hosting your own exhibition, then you can apply to local galleries so that they may show your work for you. This is likely to be far more cost effective for you as you won't be renting the space yourself, however you do tend to lose control over sale prices and the gallery will take between 30 and 50 percent of the profits from the sale of your work. That said, hopefully the right gallery will promote your work well, and ensure that you are exposed to the right sorts of people.
Social Media for Artists
Despite any negative feelings or views of social media, it is undoubtedly a useful tool for developing an audience for artists. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be great places to develop a network of appreciative fans, but also a supportive network.
With Facebook and Twitter, you can create a profile or page for yourself as an artist where you can upload pictures of your work, and keep people informed of what you are doing, or where you are showing your work offline. You can also join groups or other pages, and follow people who you are interested in. In return you will develop a following yourself.
In your profile you should have a link to your own artist website so that people can view your work in a more exclusive environment.
Build an Artist Website using Art Gallery Website Templates
To say, build an artist website, can sound daunting, but that shouldn't be the case. There are many services out there that offer the opportunity for you to visit their site, fill in a few details, click a few buttons and have your very own artist website in a matter of minutes. Therefore, setting up an artist website is a very simple thing that you can do, that will provide massive benefits to you when trying to build an audience, and inevitably selling your art online.
Having an artist website means that you have platform for displaying all of your artwork in a centralised hub that is controlled by you, organised by you, and is uniquely for your artwork. There are, of course, many sites online that allow you to upload your artwork to a large community, but much like art fairs, that means you have got a lot more work to do to stand out from the crowd.
With your own website, your name and artwork are online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to a global audience. As well as displaying your work, you should also be able to have pages of content about yourself and your work, you should be able to advertise events that you are attending or exhibitions that you are going to have. All of this promotional value usually comes at a very reasonable price, and the benefits far outweigh any associated costs.
Promoting Your Website
As an important tool for building an audience and developing a following to which you can sell your artwork, you should promote your website endlessly in everything that you do. You should have links to your website on any profiles that you have online and you should include your web address on any printed material that you create.
You should also ensure that your website has good quality images and good artwork descriptions so that when people do arrive at your website, they have something great to look at, and lots of good information to read.
There are lots of things that you can do to boost your chances of selling your artwork, but you should start by considering how you are going to build an audience, and turn that audience into an appreciative fan base. Begin building your audience through showing at art fairs, or getting involved in exhibitions. Have a look at how social media can work for you as an artist (here is a guide from Twitter about using their service from a business point of view). Also make sure that you build an artist website that is attractive and well populated, using a service that provides artist web templates.
Alex Duveen is a writer for Gallereo, a service that provides websites for artists. Duveen specialises in topics relating to art marketing and art sales, as well as art criticism and reviews.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Duveen
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